


Give Me This Life Too

by hops



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Death, Finale spoilers, M/M, end of life, outliving ur human partner bc ur an elf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 05:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11890779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: Taako would lay in bed for hours as Magnus slept soundly, ghosting slender fingers over the lines of his face. Trying to memorize them for fear of the inevitable.Taako watched as he got slower. Sicker. Just, older. His heart ached in his chest when he walked Magnus up the stairs, clutching his arm tightly, and into their bedroom for the first time. The one hundredth time was just as hard.Taako outlives the love of his lifetime(s).





	Give Me This Life Too

**Author's Note:**

> [Recommended listening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgAWyxKHIb8) for maximum tears. 
> 
> Don't ask me why the only thing I can write competently about lately is major character death??

It was okay at first, watching Magnus get old. Taako teased him as the glimpse he'd gotten of Magnus in Wonderland as a decade older appeared before him in realtime. His temples greyed first, then his sideburns, and then his beard. He aged gracefully. He was still the same old Magnus; strong, charming, doofy, quick-witted. Handsome. Gods, he was still so  _handsome._ Magnus knocked him off his feet every single day.  

The years moved faster than he wanted them to. The older they got, the more he could feel him starting to slow down. He retired from the Hammer and Tails and left the business under Angus's eye for the time being, and settled in Taako's home.  

Taako would lay in bed for hours as Magnus slept soundly, ghosting slender fingers over the lines of his face. Trying to memorize them for fear of the inevitable.  

Taako watched as he got slower. Sicker. Just, older. His heart ached in his chest when he walked Magnus up the stairs, clutching his arm tightly, and into their bedroom for the first time. The one hundredth time was just as hard.  

The doctor put him on bed rest and pulled Taako into the hallway.  

The big dog laid at his feet, taking up half the bed. They spent the afternoon reminiscing, cracking jokes, just like how it used to be. They had an extra century together—a gift that had only ever been given to the seven—and they were lucky for it. 150 years, he loved him, unheard of for an elf and a human. Even when he didn't know who he was, he loved him.  

The thought of being alone kept him up late into the night, pacing the kitchen and reorganizing his shelves of spices. Lup came home at odd hours because of planar time differences and all, and found him weeping, slumped against a cabinet. She searched through her memories for the last time she'd seen him like this and came up empty.  _We're_ _gonna_ _take care of him, I promise. Okay?_ She said, holding his hands tight in her own.  _I promise. I promise,_ she whispered in his hair.  

He committed to memory the feeling of Magnus clutched tight to him, face buried in in the crook of his neck. Slow, tired kisses trailed up and over his shoulder and throat. His hand carded through Magnus's silver hair.  

His composure started to crumble as the last days came. Behind every closed door, he cried, hand clamped tightly over his mouth to silence himself. The thought of being apart from him for another lifetime broke a dam of emotion within him that he hadn't even known about, except perhaps once, after he'd been inoculated a second time and he truly believed that his sister was long dead and a decade forgotten, and that dam had been long repaired.  

This one, it wasn't repairable.  

They were all there the day he passed. Lucretia, Merle, Barry, Davenport, Lup. Angus. Carey and Killian.  

Taako.  

He held his hand tightly in his own. Pressed into their palms was Julia's wedding ring. Taako focused on the round metal shape against Magnus's work-hardened hand. There was some comfort in knowing that waiting for him on the other side was the other great love of his life. Julia would take care of Magnus, just as he'd taken care of him after her.  

 _I hope I see her again,_ he said as a ghost of a smile touched his lips. Taako knew that he would, but he chose not to spoil the surprise for him; he wanted him to have the reunion with her he had earned.  

Taako tried so hard not to cry, but Magnus saw right through him, as he always did. He moved his chin and waited for Taako to kiss him.  _I love you,_ he whispered against his parted lips for the very last time.  

Lup told him about the home Julia built herself. About the dogs in the yard. About the workshop and the kitchen and the windows and the garden in the front. That night, he dug through their closet sleeplessly and pulled out every box they'd committed to old mementos of time gone by until he found their IPRE uniforms. He slept in Magnus's jacket in his side of the bed, feeling the imprint he'd left on the mattress below like a casket around him.   

It took a long time to get back up. He threw himself into cooking again, spent more time with Lucretia, with Merle, with Angus, and committed himself to loving them to the best of his own ability. Some days, Lup still had to coax him out of bed. They moved on as they were able. They talked about him more. They made sure Lucretia had all of their messages to him before she went, too, and they held her memory tight, with the same sacred regard.  

Taako sat under the stars, thinking of the days on the Starblaster and of the one hundred different night skies they'd sat under, plus another fifty under the skies of Faerun. Lup climbed out the window and joined him for a long time. Neither of them spoke.  

Years went by, faster than before. In the warm afternoon on an average day, the wind rippled through the grass and flowers as he visited his grave once again. He kissed the headstone and longed for Magnus's hands in his own.  

 _I miss him,_ Lup admitted, arms folded over her chest. He remembered the mushroom world, the way he'd died peacefully in his sleep, when Lup had found his body. Just a kid. A whole lifetime ago. The way Magnus had returned to him by the light of a thousand white strings, black eye and all; he considerd the past, then the future. His heart answered softly: you will see him again.  

 _Me too,_ he said. She hugged him tight.  


End file.
